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| CELEBRATING 45 YEARS OF RPG PUBLISHING – ONE GAME SYSTEM – EVERY GENRE – COUNTLESS WORLDS – ENDLESS ADVENTURE |
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| | News – Palladium Books® – Weekly Update – March 13, 2026 |
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| News Briefs
We’re back from the GAMA Expo and it was great for Palladium. We spoke with dozens upon dozens of retailers, sold books, took orders for more books, spoke to eight new distributors interested in carrying the Palladium Books game line, chatted with industry associates, and hung out with friends. It was both a successful business trip and a good time. See more about GAMA under Closing Thoughts. |
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| | What’s hot from Palladium? At the GAMA Expo the new TMNT & Other Strangeness products drew a lot of attention, the ever popular Rifts® (especially core books and Rifts Psi-Ops: Psychic War), Heroes Unlimited (sold the few copies of the RPG we brought with us in the first two hours), Palladium Fantasy, After the Bomb® sourcebooks, and the Dead Reign® RPG and sourcebooks. Gotta love them zombies! Back at the Palladium warehouse we saw similar sales patterns. The only one that’s a surprise is the hot interest in Dead Reign. DR is a great setting and lots of fun, but the spike now seems to be out of nowhere – we’re happy to see it. |
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| | | Final Days – please help us save lives. We all talk about how slavery and child abuse are horrible. Here is your chance to do something about it. I know life is uncertain and money is tight for many of you, which is why we are asking for only a $10 donation to BRIC. Of course, more is appreciated if you can afford it, but every $10 helps more than you may realize.
Please, please, please, join me, Sean, and others in the rescue of children, teens, and young adults from slavery and then to protect and educate them for a new life. Be proud to be gamers who make a real difference in the world. Thank you so much. This noble crowdfunding campaign ENDS on Sunday, March 15, 2026. |
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| | | March 15th ONLINE EVENT – Sean and I are on a Legion of Myth livestream – starting at noon. We invite you to ask questions about Palladium’s history, your favorite games, TMNT, Erick Wujcik, Rifts, BTS, Blizzard Entertainment flying me in to talk about worldbuilding, or ask questions about game design, writing, comic books, and whatever else you might wanna know, but let’s have some fun this Sunday. |
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| | More Online Fun is Coming with Sean and the Glitterbois podcast! Sean did two interviews and a TMNT & Other Strangeness game session with the Glitterbois; each rolling up a character and playing through an adventure. It’s all coming in the weeks ahead. |
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| | PalladiumBooks YouTube Channel – Meanwhile, J-M DeFoggi and I have remained busy doing new interviews and shorts. To check out any of these timeless interviews you do not need to listen to them in any particular order, just pick your favorite topic and enjoy. |
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| | APRIL EVENT! Will we see you at a Weekend Conversation with Kevin Siembieda (and Friends)? – Join the fun – April 24 & 25, 2026 – Westland, Michigan – admissions available now. Limited to 60 or so visitors and we already have a dozen friends and fans who told us they’ll be there. And we’ll go see the Worlds of Palladium exhibit at the Detroit Historical Museum too. See complete details for this unique and limited event by clicking on the link below. |
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| | | BONUS ADVENTURE for TMNT & Other Strangeness Kickstarter Backers is now available to download. The epic bonus adventure is now available to Backers only. Also note: Palladium has just been notified about a shipping SNAFU by our third-party shipper affecting around 100 of our Backers. We are working on resolving it now. Hang tight, but let us know if you have NOT received your rewards by contacting helpdesk@palladiumbooks.com. |
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| | COMING SOON! Star Anvil’s Rifts® Phase World® for Savage Worlds Kickstarter – Watch for it and sign up to their pre-launch page now so you don’t miss it. Like the Pinnacle books, this material is all official and sanctioned by Palladium Books. New characters, villains, weapons, gear, spacecraft, and adventures, are easy to adapt to your Palladium Phase World campaigns as well as offering a zillion ideas. They’ll be exploring new ground, offering new weapons, gear, villains, settings, adventures, and more across the Three Galaxies™. Follow this project now so you don’t miss out when it launches (soon). |
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| | Books COMING SOON! We are continuing to work on books behind the scenes. In addition to sending titles in for reprint every few weeks, we are wrapping up Island at the Edge of the World (Second Edition Fantasy), Rifts Bestiary 2, and more. |
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| | GEN CON Game Masters needed! We still need more GMs to run events as Gen Con. Earn free admissions and discounts. But we need your commitment, game description and info by March 17th. See more details elsewhere in this email or reach out to Jeremy Colantonio via email at: Jeremy@palladiumbooks.com |
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| | Visit the Detroit Historical Museum and see the Worlds of Palladium exhibit – now thru September 13, 2026. The exhibit is freakin’ awesome and how many times does a role-playing game company get recognized like this? Not often. The exhibit itself is historic, so come and see it and all the impressive exhibits at the museum, like Heroes & Villains: Detroit’s Comic Book Story, Streets of Old Detroit (a fave), 100 Years of Red Wings Hockey, and America’s Motor City, among others. The Detroit Institute of Arts museum is across the street and is one of the best in the country. Detroit Historical Museum – 5401 Woodward Ave, Detroit, Michigan, 48202 – telephone: 313-833-1805 – Admission: $15 for adults, Children 6-12 $8. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays, Open Wednesday thru Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM, Sunday 1-5 PM. |
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| | | Palladium needs YOU to run Gen Con Game Events |
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| Palladium is looking for experienced Game Masters to run Palladium RPG events at Gen Con. That can be any of our game worlds using our rules as well as Rifts® for Savage Worlds. If you are thinking about running games at Gen Con or want to help out, please coordinate with Palladium Books in order to get a dedicated game room and other perks like a free Game Master badge, and discounts on your purchases at the Palladium Books booth.
To earn a free GM badge, all you need to do is run 4 games with 6 or more players in each game, 4 hours each. This will earn you enough credits with Gen Con to earn a GM badge – $164 value! Plus, Game Masters get a 50% off coupon on any one item (some exclusions apply) at the Palladium booth for each game they run.
We hope to add to our usual crew of Gen Con Game Masters to run Palladium game events for any Palladium setting:
We need your commitment, game description and info by March 17. Send to Jeremy Colantonio via email at jeremy@palladiumbooks.com — Submissions after this date are not guaranteed to be in the Gen Con Program Book and attendance may suffer.
(Note: See Gen Con’s website for details about the info needed for each game listing; G.M.’s name, number of players, length of time, name of game, difficulty level, etc.). Submitting your games to us enables Palladium to coordinate and submit them as a batch to Gen Con and guarantees your event gets listed in the onsite Gen Con Program Book. Being listed onsite is very important to have full attendance for your event. This date gives us enough time to compile and send Gen Con everything they need. Thank you!
Prospective Game Masters, please contact Jeremy Colantonio via email at: Jeremy@palladiumbooks.com |
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| | 300+ RPG products on DriveThru – a dozen unique world settings – one game system – endless possibilities. No other game company offers game worlds for so many different genres. Best of all, learn to play one Palladium RPG and you can play them all, because each uses the same basic core rules and combat. There are differences, but the fundamentals are the same. This also means you can bring characters, villains, monsters, powers, magic, weapons, gear, and adventure ideas from one setting into another or mash them together!
In addition to PDF titles for entire game lines like Rifts®, Palladium Fantasy™, Heroes Unlimited™, Ninjas & Superspies™, After the Bomb®, Beyond the Supernatural™, Dead Reign® (zombies), Nightbane® (Urban Fantasy), Rifts Chaos Earth®, Systems Failure™, Splicers®, RECON®, The Rifter® #1-85, and others, there are Game Master and player aids, character generators, paper minis, map packs, and FREE Previews of books like Creature Feature™, Dead Reign, Coalition Manhunters, Titan Robotics™, Rifts Bestiary Volume One, World Books, Dimension Books, and more to give you a glimpse of what’s in the book. Enjoy endless adventures across the Megaverse®. |
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| | | Palladium Collectibles – at Kevin’s Online Toy & Collectibles eBay Store |
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| Palladium collectibles, books, artwork, and negatives, as well as action figures, toys, and other items from Kevin Siembieda’s personal collection are available from this Ebay store!
One-of-a-kind Palladium Books negatives are always very popular items at the Palladium Open House, Gen Con, and conventions, and are catching on as rare collectibles, unique in and of themselves. Last year at Granite State Comic Con, Kevin Eastman had TMNT negatives from the first comic book on display.
Before digital printing, pages of a book were laid out by hand on a board, and each page was photographed. These are the photographic negatives being sold as individual works of art and collectibles. When matted or framed on a white background they look like dynamic wood cut prints. And they are on sale right now! |
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| | Making moves at GAMA Expo
I have a history with GAMA and I’m not generally a fan, but I have to give them their props, the 2026 GAMA Expo was nothing short of outstanding for Palladium on many levels. Unlike the previous GAMA Expo, the Exhibitor room layout with its wide isles, and retailer events not conflicting with Exhibitor hours was perfect. I can’t speak for other exhibitors, but we had a lot of traffic and a lot of interest in ALL of our products.
Retailers and exhibitors alike were excited to see the TMNT & Other Strangeness products available for retail. Some preferred the full color books, some the Black, White, and Red Editions, and some wanted everything including the Game Master Screen and dice. A few actually squealed with joy – “There’s a TMNT RPG!?” (You know who you are.) For at least a third of the retailers we spoke with, this was the first time they had heard about the TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG, Transdimensional Adventures sourcebook, GM Screen and Mutagen Green Dice set. Half never knew that the original, bestselling, TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG and sourcebooks existed in the 1980s and 90s – which is why it’s important you help us spread the word. These books are brand new for many people!
Whether they knew about the old RPG or not, everyone loved the updated, expanded, full color, collection of the original books put into these two deluxe, Redux edition hardcovers. (Many old timers were shocked and pleased with how new and different the Redux Editions look and feel.) They also loved the section of tribute art and other bonus material. A number of retailers commented about how these game books should appeal to TMNT comic book collectors and all Ninja Turtle fans. Absolutely true, because we designed them that way.
I also received a lot of congratulations about the Detroit Historical Museum exhibit. A surprising number of people said they’d try to make it to the Weekend Conversation with Kevin Siembieda – April 24 & 25. Others said they planned to come up to Detroit to see the RPG and Comic Book exhibits in the summer, and would try to swing by the Palladium office while in town. Mike Pondsmith, founder of R.Talsorian Games, was particularly kind, saying that the museum exhibit was well deserved and he was happy that I was getting recognized by my home town. Mike’s a sweet guy.
We also got to say hello and hang a bit with other industry pals from Chaosium, Pinnacle Entertainment, Steve Jackson Games (though I missed seeing Steve), Studio 2, Wet Ink Games, Universal Distribution, Tycoon Games, Kickstarter, Backerkit, GamesQuest, Granite State Comic Con, Regent, Long Pack, and others.
A show like the GAMA Expo is not just about meeting retailers and selling books, it’s about networking, gathering information, connecting with industry associates, and making new connections with retailers and other industry insiders; people who can help us grow our business, distribute our products, or rethink how we do things. I’m happy to say that we made a number of exciting new contacts and reestablished old ones. The 2026 GAMA Expo was very successful for us on many levels.
Of course, meeting retailers and fans, exchanging stories, and signing their books is a highlight for me and Wayne. So is having the chance to spend some quality time with dear friends like Shawn and Lisa Hall, Ryan McDaniel, and Frank Uchmanowicz; each a wonderful person who lent us a helping hand. An unexpected pleasure was getting to see and chat with Phil Reed who had been dealing with health issues the past few years and is looking great. Stay well my friend.
Another treat was meeting the delightful and effervescent Amy from Tycoon Games. She’s a mega-fan of the Ninja Turtles and went bonkers over our products. We had a few fun conversations during the Expo. Welcome to the gaming industry, Amy. Please keep your joyful passion and sense of wonder; much success to you.
That’s it for now. I’m trying to determine what our next sale will be as well as other ways to celebrate Palladium’s 45th Anniversary. The Weekend Conversation with Kevin Siembieda – April 24 & 25 – here at the Palladium warehouse is one. The museum exhibit is a happy coincidence (or fate). Sean has a great idea for another, and we’re kicking around other ideas that include different sales, books, and events. If you have suggestions, please share them with us via email, the Help Desk, etc.
Together let us build a stronger Palladium for the next 45 years of RPG fun and adventure across the Megaverse.
– Kevin Siembieda, Game Designer, Writer, Friend |
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